


Self Care and Hair Dye

by SuperBatgirl



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: :)), Bonding, Domestic Fluff, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Inaccurate Hair Dying, Slice of Life, Team as Family, kill me i finished this like weeks ago but havent posted it, lowley duke/claire being cute, theyre family okay friggin fite me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 19:00:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17883467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperBatgirl/pseuds/SuperBatgirl
Summary: Duke never felt very close with the rest of the 'family' good thing Steph, Cass and Tim had biweekly Self Care nights.





	Self Care and Hair Dye

**Author's Note:**

> as always this was edited by the amazing pennysparrow!! who also informed that I wasn't very accurate in my portrayal of hair dying lol but im too lazy to change it now and I just wanna get this out there so here you go nasty animals take this and don't use it as a ref for dying your own hair!

“I didn’t know you had blonde hair?” Tim looked up from his laptop to Duke standing in the doorway of his room, a stack of papers held in his hands.

“Huh?” Duke gestured to Tim’s hair.

“Your hair man.”

Tim turned back to his computer and pushed his hair back, examining it in the faint reflection on the dark screen. “Yeah, guess so.” He pulled a particularly long strand of blonde hair out from the front and inspected it with squinted eyes.

“You guess so? Dude,” Duke shook his head, “you’ve been staring at that computer for way too long if you’ve forgotten your own hair colour.”

Tim laughed, but he continued typing away on his computer. As much as he’d love to have a conversation with Duke about his hair care he had work to do. And no offence intended, but why was Duke even here?

He nodded to the papers in Duke's hands, “What are those?” Duke looked down quickly as if he had forgotten they were there.

“Oh, just some case files Bruce wanted you to look at, said it’d help with the Calendar Man thing you’re working on right now,” he explained, passing the neatly organised files over to Tim. He flicked through them quickly, and on deciding they didn’t provide any immediate help, put them to the side.

Duke was still awkwardly standing at the side of his bed. “Anything else?” Tim asked quickly, then grimaced. “That sounded rude, I just meant, like, any other reason or something you wanna talk about, cause I really need to get back to this case.”

Duke shook his head, “No, not really. Just the case files,” he paused, “and wanted to check that you were doing alright.”

“I am, thanks. And could you ask Alf to save me a plate? I don't want to miss dinner.” Tim focused on his computer again.

“Yeah man, sure.” Duke turned to leave, but before he could get far Tim shook his head at himself and stopped him.

“Hey Duke?”

“Yeah man?”

“The girls are coming over later for a self-care thing they wanna do, you wanna join us instead of hanging all evening with a grumpy-ass Bruce?” Again no offense to Bruce, but in his experience when it was past 9 pm and Bruce wasn’t on patrol he got really snappy. And as good as Duke was at handling an agitated Bruce better than any of them, spending time with him wasn’t the best plan for a Wednesday evening.

Duke rubbed his neck, “Sure dude, lemme’ just check with B first.”

“Okay, but I’ll see you after dinner yeah?”

He grinned. “Yeah, see you then.”

* * *

Tim hadn’t shown up for dinner. So Duke stayed downstairs in the kitchen talking with Alfred about the best way to stop the steadily declining population of bees when a musical knock rapped on the front door. Alfred excused himself and went to open the door, Duke waiting in the doorway to the kitchen curiously.

Alfred unlocked the door and welcomed the three figures draped in coats and beanies, one with a bag hanging from their hand, inside from the cold. Duke immediately recognised all three of them and lit up.

“Claire!” He called, waving his hand frantically in greeting. Claire, the smallest of the trio turned suddenly, her coat half wriggled off her body and grinned at the sight of one of her best friends.

“Duke!” She hollered his name before passing off her coat to Alfred and charging him from across the room.

She slammed into him, throwing him off balance and leaving him pressed up against the wall as she buried her head into his chest, he squeezed her with his arms and grinned. “I didn’t know you were coming back for break! That's amazing, you have to tell me everything!”

She looked up at him with those big blue eyes and shared his smile. “I will, I will! But Cass and Steph said something about a self-care evening?” Somehow her eyes got even brighter. “Do you wanna join us?” She looked over her shoulder at the two other girls in question, who nodded approvingly.

“Yeah, Duke join us! We can paint your nails --and you can help us dye Tim’s hair!” Steph exclaimed, beckoning him over with the hand that wasn’t holding a bag.

“Well that's real sweet of you but I’ve already been invited somewhere.” He smirked like a Cheshire cat at Claire's disappointed face.

“Oh really? Where? With who?”

“Upstairs for a self-care evening by Tim.”

Steph snorted. “Oh, you’ve got jokes now Thomas?” she asked. Duke smiled. “Come on musketeers we’ve got a Tim to fix.”

Steph practically dragged the three of them up the manor stairs and down the hall to Tim’s bedroom, which was the furthest from the stairs, unfortunately.

“Oh, Ti-immmm!” Steph sang, completely off key, but still the thought was there. “Timmy boyyyyyy, it's time!” She continued down the hall until the four of them burst into Tim’s room.

Tim himself sat on the bed with a surprised look on his face, illuminated by the light of the computer since there were absolutely no other lights on in his room. Seriously how does he live like this?

Claire snorted at Duke’s side. “You a’right there Timmy? You look like a deer caught in headlights,” she joked, gesturing to… his whole demeanour. Cass laughed with her.

“He does.”

Tim ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “Sorry guys I lost track of time, can we do this later?”

“Definitely not buddy, we’ve got work to do!” Steph chirped. Cass nodded in agreement, at some point she had moved from her place behind Claire and Duke to now leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed loosely. She had also taken ahold of the bag Steph had been holding. Now that he thought about it, Duke had no idea what was in that bag.

Tim groaned, but Duke could see the hint of a smile tugging on his mouth. “Oh really? And what work would that be Miss Brown?”

“Miss _Stephanie_ Brown to you,” Cass corrected.

“Hmm, yes I do like that.” Steph stroked an imaginary beard in thought. “But as for work, those roots bb, they do not work!” She swiftly made her way into the room and onto the double bed and ruffled Tim’s hair.

“And you need to shower,” Cass pointed out, waving her hand in front of her nose for emphasis.

Claire grimaced. “Gross.”

“Yeah man, how long has it been since you last showered?” Duke plugged his nose and tried to suppress his smile.

“Shut up, y’all are bullies.” He pushed Steph away playfully. “Imma tell Bruce on you.”

“Very mature,” Steph laughed.

“And since when do you say y’all?” Duke felt taken back by the suddenly southern slang, though not upset, just curious.

“He’s been spending a lot of time with Kon.” Cass wiggled her eyebrows as she spoke.

A chorus of ‘ooooooos’ flooded the room.

“Shut up, me and Kon are just friends,” Tim held up his hands in defence, “and anyway, everyone knows who my heart really belongs to.”

Steph shot up. “Your one and true love: Me.”

“Penguin Bars.”

_“Penguin Bars?!”_

“Yes, Penguin Bars.”

Duke crossed his arms across his chest. “I have never once seen you eat a Penguin Bar.”

Cass raised her hand. “Same.”

“It's a secret love affair.”

They all burst out laughing.

“Like you could keep a queen like Penguin Bars, she deserves better than you.” Steph shook her head in fake disappointment.

Tim looked thoughtful for a second. “Maybe so, but so do you.”

“Okay now we’re getting depresso Timmo and that's not what this evening was meant to be.” Steph patted his back and bounced off the bed, walking towards the doorway, where Duke, Cass and Claire where still waiting awkwardly, dragging Cass inside, slipping the bag from the other girl’s hands. She peered inside.

“Speaking of, why exactly are we here?” Claire asked, grabbing Duke's arm and leading him inside the bedroom after the other girls. He let her pull him to the floor with her as they all sit down.

“Yeah, thought this was self-care?” He questioned.

“It is!” Steph fished her hand into the bag and pulled out a bag of Doritos and two boxes of hair dye. “Hold on,” she muttered before dropping the items onto Tim’s bed and stuffing her hand back in. “There’s more!” She pulled out yet another box of hair dye, nail polish, facemasks, a makeup bag and the Incredibles 2 DVD. “Tada!”

“You know Incredibles 2 is on Netflix now?” Tim pointed out. Steph glared at him.

“It doesn’t matter, we’re gonna watch Incredibles 2 on DVD and do face masks like a _happy_ family,” Steph said firmly, but she was smiling. “Okay! What's first?”

Duke picked up the boxes of dye thrown on the floor and read over the names, one was a blonde root touch up, the second one was also a root touch up, except in black, the last one though, was a little different.

“Whos this one for?” He held the box up, plastered across the front where the words Mauve Kiss and a woman with long pink locks of hair.

Cass looked up, “Harper,” she said matter of factly. Duke looked around, he didn’t think Harper was here, but then again you could never be sure with this family. Cass noticed him and clarified. “She didn’t come.”

“But she was meant to,” Steph explained. Tim plucked the box from Duke’s hands and held it up in front of him.

“Where is she?”

Cass reached for the bag of Doritos, “With Cullen. Watching Star Wars.” She ripped it open and took a handful before offering it to Claire, who graciously took a handful as well.

Steph snatched the box out of Tim’s hand and tossed it back to the floor, “But we won't be needing it.” She eyed the group around her. “ _Unlesssss_ , someone else wants to dye their hair pink?”

Claire stuffed a handful of Doritos into her mouth and inspected the box. “I'll do it,” she said through a mouthful of chips.

She will?

“You will?”

Duke was taken back, he never took Claire for the hair dye type, and her hair was still pretty short, not long enough to be dyed yet? But then again, Duke wasn’t really the hair wizard, so he couldn’t be sure.

“You _sure_?” Tim asked.

“Well, it says it's semi-permanent, so if I don’t like it, I won't have to deal with it too long.” Claire flipped the box over and read over the instructions. “I'm down. Seriously.”

“Okay then,” Steph smiled at her. “Let's do this then!”

* * *

Fast forward to Duke with a charcoal peel off mask covering his face, drying painfully slow as he tries not to pick at it, and Claire sat on the floor in front of him as he follows Cass’s directions in covering her hair in pink dye.

“Next layer,” Cass instructs. She has Steph’s cloud of blonde hair in her lap and is touching up the roots as Steph munches on some cookie dough she’d found in the fridge when Alfred had abandoned his post by the kitchen to deliver a cup of coffee to Bruce and Bette; who had offered to fill in for Duke tonight. Which, despite his worries, he was really thankful for.

He hadn’t been sure about coming when Tim had invited him to spend the evening with them, despite knowing everyone long enough to consider them friends he never had those moments, those bonding moments, everyone else had. The only one who he really had a proper friendship with was Claire. It was probably good luck that she showed up tonight.

“Now flip her hair over the front and dye the back.” Cass had finished Steph’s roots now and was working on picking out a colour to paint Steph’s nails while they waited for the dye to set in.

Tim then emerged from the ensuite, a towel draped around his neck and his damp hair sticking to his forehead and neck. Cass had dyed his roots first, then they’d all shoved him into the ensuite to shower, so now they just had to wait for it to dry.

“Let me blow dry it!” Steph begged.

“No, when you blow dry it you always make me look like a kid fresh outta kindergarten.” Tim shook his head, sending a few drops of water flying in everyone's face.

“Oh, I want to see that!” Claire piped up from her seat in front of Duke. “Pleeeeeease, Tim!” She clapped her hands in front of her and begged.

Duke grabbed her shoulders. “Hey stay still!” he said firmly. “Alfred will be pissed if we get this on the carpet.” He was trying to concentrate here!

Claire held her arms up in surrender and giggled. “Sorry.” They all looked back at Tim, who was trying to hold back laughter as he took in the sight before him.

“Looking good pinkie.” He shot Claire with some finger guns.

She groaned, grabbing the now empty box of hair dye and throwing it in his general direction, he dodged it with ease. “We are not starting that.”

Cass hummed. “It’s cute.”

Duke couldn’t see her face but he felt the hitch in Claire’s breath. “Really?”

Steph nodded. “Yeah, I mean you look like you were just dunked in a tub of melted pink chocolate right now, but once it's dry you’re gonna look a-may-zing!”

“You really think?”

Duke shook her shoulders slightly. “Definitely.”

He could hear the smile in her laugh after that.

Steph clapped her hands together, bringing everyone's attention to her. “Alright! Incredibles?” They all nodded furiously.

The next 2 hours were spent with Incredibles 2 playing on Tim’s computer on the bed, Cass painting everyone’s nails, and Steph styling their hair. By the end of the night, they were exhausted, with clean skin, freshly painted nails, and soft, newly dyed hair. They fell asleep with the credits rolling in the background.

Duke laid on the carpet, staring at the ceiling. Claire’s head was tucked under his chin, the rest of her body sprawled practically on top of him as he absentmindedly stroked her really, really soft hair. Tim was snoring loudly next to him, Steph and Cass curled up partly on top of the other boy. And Duke thought, maybe, just maybe, this was their special bonding moment.


End file.
